At its March meeting this past week, the State Board of
Education adopted and forwarded to the Governor and Illinois General Assembly a
Preliminary Comprehensive Strategic Plan for
Elementary and Secondary Education. This effort, while being the
right thing to do, is also in response to Public Act 93-1036 (previously SB
3000) which created the new educational governance structure we now have in
Illinois.

The Plan focuses on three broad goal areas: Enhancing
Literacy, Improving Educator Quality for All Children and Expanding
Data-Informed School Management and Support Practices. Within these goal areas,
specific objectives address a variety of topics—each objective also directly
relates to those topic areas set forth in PA
93-1036.

The planning process is underway, but far from complete.
A final version of the Plan must be submitted by September 2005. In the
meantime, the Agency will hold hearings around the state to assist staff in
building implementation plans to accomplish these goals. The Plan will also
receive ongoing review and evaluation to ensure that it remains a meaningful
instrument to provide direction for education initiatives across
Illinois. Of course, you should always feel free to
contact me with ideas you may have regarding the Plan
document.

Foster increased literacy by providing support for
effective instruction and broad approaches to impact all
students.

Strategic
Objectives

Establish literacy as the top educational priority and
assist schools in delivering high quality reading skills and literacy
instruction beginning in early childhood and continuing through the high
school grades (PA 93-1036 Topic Areas: 1, 2, 3)

Partner with other agencies to educate parents on how
to be their child’s first teachers to stimulate development in reading and
writing (PA 93-1036 Topic Areas: 1, 4)

Collaborate with higher education and other agencies
on integrated teacher education and professional development programs themed
around literacy (PA 93-1036 Topic Areas: 4, 8)

Improving Educator Quality for All
Children

Goal
Summary

Expand and improve
the pool of highly qualified educators by supporting the preparation,
recruitment and retention of educators with expertise both in content areas and
child development.

Strategic
Objectives

Partner with higher education and other agencies to
ensure educators have the preparation and background to teach successfully in
rural and urban settings and work with at-risk students (PA 93-1036 Topic
Areas: 8, 12, 14)

Provide high quality professional development in “best
practices” for educators working in schools struggling to meet AYP (PA 93-1036
Topic Areas: 11, 14)

Work with higher education and other entities to
develop school leaders who are successful in raising student achievement (PA
93-1036 Topic Areas: 14)

Support the
utilization of data to assist school districts in providing more effective
operational practices, opportunities to pool shared services and flexibility in
balancing their budgets to increase educational
outcomes.

Increase school-based technology for data-informed
decision making at the building level, reflecting greater access to
educational research and outcomes evaluation for school improvement (PA
93-1036 Topic Areas: 6, 9, 10)

Establish a consistent role for the Regional Offices
of Education and Intermediate Service Centers to be key providers of support
services and hold them accountable for service delivery in conjunction with
ISBE’s responsibility to provide them with technical and fiscal support (PA
93-1036 Topic Areas: 4, 15)

At the close of
business Wednesday, March 16, 2005, Pearson Educational Measurement reported
that more than 2200 Illinois schools had not entered and/or approved
their First-Day Enrollments on the NCS SchoolHouse website for ISAT and IMAGE
Grades 3-8. This is a critical component of AYP calculation and must be completed by no later than
Monday, March 28,
2005.

One percent exception application
reminder

If more than one
percent of students in grades 3, 5, 8 and 11 are identified as significantly
cognitively disabled, districts must prepare a request for an exception to the
one percent cap. If the conditions for the exception are approved, then all
progressing and attaining scores earned by students taking the Illinois
Alternate Assessment (IAA) will be counted as proficient in making
determinations for school, district and state AYP.

The Curriculum and Instruction Division is pleased to
introduce Laurie Lee, who began working at ISBE on March
1, 2005.
Laurie has an extensive background in reading and will be working with the
Reading Improvement Block Grant. Laurie will contact districts soon with
information regarding this grant program. Please feel free to contact her by
phone at 217/557-7323 or e-mail her at lelee@isbe.net with any
questions.

2005 Service Learning
Conference

The Illinois State Board of Education’s Division of
Curriculum and Instruction will co-sponsor the Annual Illinois Service Learning
Conference on April
29, 2005 at
the Holiday Inn Select Hotel and Convention Center in Tinley
Park. Other sponsors include the Illinois Commission on
Volunteerism and Community Service, the Illinois Campus Compact, the Federal
Corporation for National and Community Service and Illinois Lieutenant Governor
Pat Quinn.

Service learning is an instructional method in which
students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully
organized volunteer service that is conducted in and meets the needs of
communities. Service-learning also can be used to effectively support program
implementation and many of the parent and community involvement goals of the No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), including Title I and Title I, Part H;
Title III; Title IV; and Title V.

This one day conference will be of interest to teachers,
students, school board members, superintendents and local community leaders
involved in school-based or community-based service learning, as well as others
who want to learn more about this highly effective method for promoting academic
learning and student civic engagement.

Featured speakers will include Illinois Lieutenant
Governor Pat Quinn, a passionate advocate for service learning and Illinois
Teacher of the Year Deborah Perryman, an environmental education teacher and
service learning expert from ElginHigh
School in School District U-46.

The program will include general sessions, breakout
sessions and student exhibits designed to celebrate the achievements of
students, school staff and community partners and to promote continuing program
improvement. Among the topics to be addressed will
be:

Aligning community
service activities with the school curriculum and the Illinois Learning
Standards

Enhancing
NCLB implementation through coordination with
service learning initiatives

Maximizing
opportunities for student leadership and civic
engagement

Working
effectively with community partners

Applying PC and
PDA technology to service learning planning and program
evaluation

Conference brochures will be distributed soon. The
registration fee of $60 for adults and $40 for students will include continental
breakfast, lunch and all conference materials. The program is scheduled from
9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with check-in and breakfast available at
8 a.m. The conference is again being coordinated for the State
Board by The Center: Resources for Teaching and Learning, in
Des
Plaines. For more information, contact the Learn and Serve
America Program Director at (847) 803-3535.

Advanced placement
incentive program (APIP) RFP to be released

On March
21, 2005,
from 1 to 3 p.m., the Curriculum and Instruction Division
will host a live webcast which will feature the details of the Advanced
Placement Incentive Program Request for Proposal. A copy of the RFP can be found
on the ISBE website at http://www.isbe.net/curriculum/pdf/AP_rfp.pdf

A list of eligible applicants can be found on pages
11-17 of the RFP. Please review the RFP prior to the webcast so that you are
acquainted with the requirements and format. Questions can be e-mailed in
advance or the day of the webcast, as well as after to advancedplacement@isbe.net

Please note that eligible districts must serve grades
6-12 and have a 40 percent free or reduced lunch count. The intent of the RFP is
to fund twenty-five (25) AP teams at $10,000 each.

Applications with original signatures are due to ISBE by
close of business on April
4, 2005. An
interactive pdf format will be available on the website by
March
21, 2004.
This form can be filled in on the applicant’s computer, including cover page,
school listing, abstract, objectives and activities, budget and assurances, but
it must be printed off and mailed. This is a competitive grant. The Curriculum
and Instruction division welcomes applications from all eligible
districts.

At its February meeting, the State Board of Education
released nine sets of proposed rules for public comment. The last eight of these
items have now been posted on the agency’s website at www.isbe.net/rules choose “Proposed Rules
and Amendments.” Please submit any comments or suggestions you may have to rules@isbe.net

Deadline for Public Comment:
April
25, 2005

Part 1 (Public Schools Evaluation,
Recognition and Supervision)

It has become apparent that, in at least one instance,
access to a public early childhood education program has been denied to a child
because of the child’s immigration status. The Governor’s Office and the State
Board of Education were asked to intervene on behalf of the child’s family and
ISBE has been directed to take action to prohibit denials of access such as
this.

Free public education is guaranteed regardless of
immigration status under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1982 decision in Plyler v.
Doe. The present amendment to Part 1 will make this protection explicit in the
rules of the State Board of Education.

Part 25
(Certification)

This set of amendments includes miscellaneous changes
that are opportune at this time.

Section 25.11(f) is being revised with respect to the
definition of “four years of teaching experience” so that an individual who is
approaching the end of the fourth year and who is expected to complete that year
in his or her current position will be able to apply for the standard
certificate.

The slight revision in each of Sections 25.22, 25.32,
25.42 and 25.82 is technical in nature. Section 25.725 was recently repealed and
its currently needed content was subsumed in Section 25.720, so these references
need to be updated.

The addition of a new subsection (m) to Section 25.100
will create another exception to the general model for adding endorsements in
the case of “technology specialist”. Since Section 25.100 was added last year,
staff have found it very difficult to determine which
coursework should be counted toward a major area of concentration relevant to
this endorsement. Terminology in this area varies widely and it seems the more
prudent course of action to require passage of the content-area test based on
the applicable standards so as to ensure that candidates are prepared to perform
the functions encompassed within the technology specialist’s area. Thus we are
proposing that there be only one option available for adding this endorsement
(passage of the test in conjunction with completion of 24 semester hours of
coursework).

Section 25.115 is being revised to clarify that the
“programs” under discussion in these rules are only those that prepare
individuals for certification.

Section 25.125(d) discusses the review team that is
involved in the on-site accreditation review. The requirement for ISBE team
members and an ISBE co-chair on visits involving NCATE accreditation is being
deleted. At the same time, the role of the ISBE consultant is being clarified,
i.e., this individual does participate in the
visit.

The procedure outlined in Section 25.160 has proven to
contain one unnecessary step that will be eliminated in this rulemaking. When
the State Teacher Certification Board’s recommendation is for approval or
accreditation that is not provisional or conditional, there is no need for the
affected institution to submit a response and consequently no need for a 30-day
waiting period before the recommendation is forwarded to the State Board of
Education.

The requirement that each candidate for a school
psychologist’s credential have completed a program accredited by the National
Association of School Psychologists (Section 25.235(a)) was widely applauded
during last year’s rulemaking on this subject but has since proven to create an
untenable situation. This rule precludes the establishment of any new approved
school psychology programs in Illinois, because accreditation by NASP requires
data on graduates. Thus a proposed new program cannot attain that
accreditation.

We have determined that the long-standing rule on lapsed
certificates (Section 25.450) is unnecessarily stringent in terms of the
timeframe within which individuals serving on reinstated certificates must
complete the statutorily required five semester hours of college credit. The
proposed revision would allow semester hours earned either during the
certification year of reinstatement or during the five immediately preceding
years to be counted for this purpose.

Part 51 (Dismissal of Tenured
Teachers)

Part 52 (Dismissal of Tenured
Teachers and Civil Service Employees Under Article
34)

The procedures for the dismissal of tenured teachers in
school districts outside of the City of Chicago and within the City of
Chicago were previously separated into Parts 51
and 52. The proposed amendments to Part 51 represent the consolidation of these
two Parts.

Where required by the School Code, distinctions have
been made within the rules to accommodate differences between the processes for
the City of Chicago and for districts outside of the City of
Chicago. Previously, Parts 51 and 52 had
duplicated the statutory requirements for the provision of reasonable warning to
remove remediable conduct, approval of a motion for dismissal, notice to a
teacher, selection of a hearing officer, scheduling of the hearing and
suspension of a teacher pending the hearing. The new version of the rules does
not include requirements that are sufficiently specified by statute, as ISBE
does not want to force districts, teachers and other constituents to review both
the statute and rules to determine where differences
occur.

Under the new version of the rules, hearing officers for
hearings involving the City of Chicago may be residents of the City of
Chicago. Part 52 previously required
Chicago hearing officers to be non-residents, even
though the statutory restriction on resident hearing officers only applies to
hearings outside of the City of Chicago. Finally, the per diem payment of $300 is
no longer specified in our rules. ISBE is currently reviewing its ability to
increase this per diem amount.

The proposed amendments to Part 51 are accompanied by
the repeal of Part 52 in its entirety.

Part 145 (Temporary Relocation
Expenses)

As a result of the general review of these rules, it has
been determined that the process for repaying loan funds to the State Board can
be simplified. Instead of requiring that districts submit to ISBE the proceeds
of tax levies related to these expenses within 30 days after the proceeds are
received, we believe it will be sufficient for each affected district to make
one payment annually, consisting of all proceeds received to that
point.

It is not necessary for the State Board to receive the
entire total for a given calendar year at the end of that year. Therefore, to
accommodate later receipts it seems a reasonable solution to move the collection
date into the early part of the subsequent year and to provide explicitly that
amounts not received by the annual payment date can be held by the affected
districts until the next annual payment is due. In this way it will be clear
that there is no penalty for a district whose levy proceeds arrive too late to
be included in the relevant annual payment.

Part 155 (Electronic Transfer of
Funds)

These proposed changes represent the results of the
general review of this set of rules. In addition to general technical updating,
the revisions include elimination of the option for certain participants to
designate multiple bank accounts for the receipt of electronically transmitted
funds. We have not found that many entities have used this option, perhaps
because it entails time-consuming maintenance not only on ISBE’s part but also
on the part of payees.

Part 475 (Contested Cases and Other
Formal Hearings)

Part 480 (Hearings Before the State Teacher Certification
Board)

Part 475 is being generally updated and also revised to
incorporate a number of provisions that are currently found Part 480 (Hearings
Before the State Teacher Certification Board). These two Parts cover similar
topics and therefore lend themselves to being
combined.

Part 475 will now require evidentiary hearings that are
under the jurisdiction of the Certification Board (STCB) to be conducted by a hearing
officer in accordance with the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act (IAPA),
unless the STCB specifically elects not to appoint a hearing officer. A hearing
can be held in the presence of the entire Certification Board or independent of it. In any case,
the STCB will make the final decision.

Others of the amendments change timeframes for notices
and responses in order to give the parties more time to prepare their material.
Finally, the language of the rules is generally being brought into conformance
with the requirements of the IAPA and current rulemaking style. The proposed
amendments to Part 475 are accompanied by the proposed repeal of Part
480.

Notice of completed
rulemaking

Please be advised that a rulemaking item recently
adopted by the State Board of Education is now in effect. This set of rules has
been posted on the agency’s web site at www.isbe.net/rules

choose “Rules Currently in Effect” and scroll to the relevant
Part number. (If you print only the affected Sections, remember to include the
table of contents for the Part, which changes every time the Part is
amended.)

Access to information of
the State Board of Education under the Freedom of Information Act (Part
5001)

Several of ISBE’s Freedom of Information Act rules were
repeated verbatim from the text of the Act or are otherwise adequately addressed
by statute. These sections were determined to be unnecessary and have been
deleted. The procedures for providing public records and the procedures for
providing access to materials incorporated by reference in administrative rules
were consolidated into one Subpart. While the amendments have streamlined ISBE’s
FOIA rules, they do not represent a substantive change in ISBE’s FOIA
procedures.